On the way back from Lancaster we decided to stop in our old neighborhood. We'd spend the night and do some shopping and drop by Mountain House for takeout on the way home the next day. I did have something planned for dinner though. There was a Sushi/Omakase restaurant that opened in a strip mall on Gale, between Fullerton and Nogales a while back named Sushi Yuen. Man, this strip mall wasn't even constructed when we moved away from the area.
Sushi Yuen is an all Omakase shop, according to what I had read they actually got seafood from Toyosu Market in Tokyo. At the time of our visit, dinner was running at $250 per person (drinks not included), with a $150 deposit for each diner.
Anyway, after checking in at the Best Western and taking a short nap, we actually walked on over……now there's not much pedestrian activity on Gale, so we did get some weird looks.
We checked in and waited until we were walked over to our seats. The restaurant has sushi bar only seating. I counted a total of 15 seats for our dinner.
There's a brief selection of wine and sake available. We did end up having a glass of the Zaku and the Tenbei during our meal.
Speaking of glasses, metal tumblers were brought to the table. Once filled with ice water, a pattern appeared! Kinda neat.
Due to the amount of dishes in this meal, I'll try to be as brief as possible.
There was five staff working behind the counter; the head man, who introduced himself as Ryan was very friendly, as was the young man who would eagerly show us the products being used for our dishes.
And you can see what was going to be part of our first dish.
Notice all the fresh wasabi at the bottom of the screen?
As you can tell by that photo, hairy crab was going to be in the first dish, which ended up being a wonderful savory chawan mushi.
Decadently smooth and creamy, permeated with the frangrance of sweet-savory-oceany crab, this was a wonderful start to our meal.
Next up, Katsuo (Skipjack) Tataki.
This had a mild smokiness to it; on the firmer side in texture, with that nice, all too familiar umami "punch".
Next up was the Hokkaido Hotate with Kaluga Caviar.
Gently coated, with a wonderful, light, crisp coating. The scallop was perfectly cooked, the slightly firm and wonderfully sweet flesh was so delici-yoso! It really didn't need the caviar, but heck, there it was and I wasn't going to complain about that!
We'd first come across "Tacu" in CDMX, at its most basic it's using nori in place of a tortilla. This was a negi-toro tacu.
The highlight of this was the interplay of the pungent-herbaceous-slightly sweet wasabi, the minty-chlorophllic-anise shiso, and the savory nori.
Next up was the grilled Tachiuo, belt fish.
The flesh was so buttery in texture, it basically melted in your mouth. The flavor was mild, so having the crisp skin on made all the difference.
The Akami-zuke was quite routine.
Perfectly texture maguro, but even more impressive was the rice which cooked to perfection, every grain could be counted, but the texture was soft, the "shari" was nicely balanced.
Aji-Miso was next.
Nice textural contrast, but the nice rich-savory flavor of the Horse Mackerel was kind of overwhelmed by the miso sauce.
I was quite excited to see Nodoguro (Black throat sea perch) as the next item. This is a rarity for us here in the states.
Man, this was so rich and buttery in texture. The flavor was mild and was enhanced by the "tare".
We didn't care much for the Ankimo-Yuzu. It was like they were trying to cover up the natural flavor of the ankimo.
Think of it as being mashed ankimo "potato-ish" salad. We enjoy the texture of ankimo which was not featured in this dish. Too sweet-sour.
The folks must have been reading our minds, because next up was a "shot" of Katsuo Dashi!
Which helped to "reset" our palates.
The Hirame was quite good, great texture!
While having the Hirame, we noticed some items being cooked on the griddle.
This turned out to be charred Saba, made into sort of temaki.
This was very good; the skin crisp, the oil content made the flesh so very creamy and reduced the strong fishy flavor!
Next up was another fairly rare fish for SoCal, Sayori (Half-beak) Nigiri.
So clean and refreshing! The somewhat sweet, delicate flavor wasn't overwhelmed by the tare. This was ono!
Then the Chu-Toro.
Rich and fatty goodness! On perfect rice, the tare did so well on this; adding the savory touches of soy and a hint of sweetness.
18558 Gale Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91748
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
My goodness; this consisted of six slices of akami maguro! Fresh, nice texture, no off flavors, refreshing. The young lady asked me if I wanted some wasabi and grated ginger and I answered with an affirmative. This just added another layer of enjoyment. The maguro was seared nicely; the fried onions adding a nice sweet-pungent-crispness; there could have been more ponzu, but this was quite good.
I also loved that the wing tips were attached; I just love gnawing on them, even though the sticky-sweet sauce got all over my hands. The batter was on the crunchy side, almost lacquered, and it held up for the entre meal. The meat was moist, had no off colors or flavors. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste though, but still, well worth the price.
The new president, Ed Morales, was introduced and he 
The artist rendition for the 2025 
Even moreso in real life! See the slot in the front hill? That is where the "Spotter" sits and can view what is in front of the float. The Spotter speaks to the driver via a headset and has a set of brakes there at the front, in case an emergency type of stopping is necessary.
Kiwanis International has the theme "Being Together" and is going to be even more beautiful when covered in natural materials and flowers. The slot for the Spotter to view is at the top of the honeycomb
The Service organization of Oddfellows and Rebekahs has their 2025 entry depicted 
Here it is in real life! so vibrant and, again, cute. You can see the rectangular slot in front. The Driver, who only follows the 'Rose Colored Line' on the street is situated near the middle of the float.
The drawing of the 2025 
This beauty is surreal and so detailed; everyone (on either side of the parade route) will see something different.
The 2025 entry for the Luthern Hour Ministries and 
There will be 'stained glass' windows on the church, all created with natural materials. This float will be magnificent with it's theme "Behold! Jesus the Savior is Born". The Petal Pushers volunteers assist with decorating about eight floats during decorating days.
The Fraternal Service Organization of Elks will have another float in the 2025 Rose Parade.
"Cherished Memories" is the theme. Remember that all floats must 'fit' down the parade route, so the Elk at the back of the float must be able to collapse down to the maximum allowable size.
Shriners Children's 2025 float will feature a working waterfall!
So far, in it's basic stages, I can see that the two parrots will be lifted up to go down the parade route, then lowered as it gets to the tight spots along the route. 
I have not seen any drawings for the City of Alhambra entry, but it was also tested on July 13. 
A cortadito ($3.39) was a nice alternative to coffee. The espresso with sweetened condensed milk really hit the spot. 
A new beverage is an iced passion fruit, yuzu pear lemonade ($5.45) and we just had to try it. Topped with edible violas and mint, this was a very pleasant, not overly sweet treat.
A peach target ($4.55) and a matcha raspberry eclair ($3.90) were our choices to try later that day. Wonderful crust and pastry and fruit and cream. Very nice indulgences.
A walnut-raisin batard ($4.65) is a must purchase item. Crisp crust, an almost sourdough base and walnuts and raisins; a perfect snack or breakfast.
Two cheese rolls ($1.19 each). were enjoyed in the car on the way home. Crisp and flaky and sugar topped with a whipped cream cheese filling. Another perfect item.
We ordered Torrejas (Cuban French Toast) ($9.15), a wonderful breakfast item, especially with the cream cheese and fresh fruit.
Instead of an eggy sandwich, we shared a lechon sandwich ($8.69) Roasted pork, so tender and topped with pickled onions, served on fresh, pressed bread that was spread with a wonderful house made chimichurri sauce. This satisfied the cravings I had for about half a year.
The tacos were served on blue corn tortillas, that were very dry, tough, and really didn't add anything to the dish. Likewise the sweet chili sauce provided. 
thru nicely. I believe the the version from Soup du Jour (funny, I thought I did a post on the place, but I guess not?) is better both in texture and flavor.
This is what I unpacked at home. There was also two small containers, one with extra "shoyu", with very little shoyu flavor for that version of poke, I ended up not using it as it would have watered down the flavor even more. And the second, when I first looked at it, I asked myself "what the heck is Mul Kimchi doing here? This ain't a KFC place". Then I opened it and the fragrance hit me. I cracked up; it was haupia! A nice little touch.
The fish was decently, not overly coated, the quality, while not as good as HFS was fine. Not too salty, a decent version of Shoyu Poke.
The bread looked like a rolled French Baguette. It was quite crusty, though a bit more dense then what I'd call a typical banh mi. The jalapenos were really mild. There was a thin sliver of cucumber….though I must say that cucumbers are MIA in many banh mi's these days. There was a good ration of pickled veggies to mayo to pork.